1941 - The Defense of Wake Island

Wake IslandDecember 7-23, 1941

Links & Sites

"All hands have behaved splendidly and held up in a manner
of which the Marine Corps may well tell."Major Paul Putnam, December 21, 1941

Along with Guam, Wake Island was one of the key American outposts in the central Pacific,
a vital part of the supply line between Hawaii and the Philippines. A small atoll 2300 miles
west by southwest of Hawaii, Wake was one of the first objectives of Japan's military planners.
Located just outside the Japanese Mandate Islands - including Truk, the Marianas and Marshall
islands, and Palau - Wake was within striking range of Japanese bombers based on Kwajalein to
the south. Flat, and with few natural defenses, the island presented an easy target for invasion.

While Enterprise was only tangentially involved in the battles for Wake
Island, the story has an important place in her history. Days before Pearl Harbor,
Enterprise had delivered the Marine pilots and planes of squadron VMF-211,
who played a vital role in the island's defense. The incredible courage of the island's
defenders deserves to be remembered.

Just hours after the last Zero had left the skies over Pearl Harbor, 34 Japanese bombers
swept out of the rain and fog over Wake Island, blasting and strafing the airfield, fuel
storage tanks and other facilities on the atoll. Composed of three small islands - Peale,
Wilkes, and the main island Wake - the atoll was home to 450 Marines and sailors, as well
as nearly 1500 civilians, including employees of Pan Am, which operated a hotel and seaplane
station as part of its Philippine Clipper service.

Posters such as this one, by artist Arbin Henning, graphically illustrated the desperate
struggles taking place on America's Pacific outposts.

Aided by the weather, the attackers enjoyed nearly complete surprise, killing 52, including
18 Marines, and destroying 7 of the precious Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters which
Enterprise had delivered to the island just a week before. After the strike,
the wounded and a few lucky others were loaded on the Martin 130 flying boat docked at the
island, and evacuated to Hawaii. The Marines and others remaining on the island braced for
the next attack, and for the arrival of an enemy cruiser and destroyer force the Clipper pilot
had sighted over the horizon.

The bombing raids - launched from Roi, in the Kwajalein atoll some 700 miles south - continued
for the next three days, taking their toll on the island's defenders, and grinding the Marine's
fighter squadron down to four flyable planes. With these planes, six 5-inch and twelve 3-inch
anti-aircraft guns, the Marines greeted the Japanese landing force that appeared early December
11. (Dates for events on Wake are localized to Wake, which is west of the International Date Line.)

The invasion force consisted of three light cruisers, six destroyers and two transports
carrying an Imperial Marine detachment, under the command of Rear Admiral Kaijou Sadamichi.
Approaching from the south, the cruisers and destroyers began shelling the atoll at 0522 that
morning. A little more than forty minutes later the force had approached to within 2,500 yards
of Wake, and the transports were moving in, closely escorted by the destroyers. Having held
their fire during the Japanese bombardment, at 0610 the Marine gunners came to life.

On Peacock Point - the southern tip of Wake - Lieutenant Clarence Barninger's battery
engaged Kajioka's flagship, the cruiser Yubari, and quickly scored four
direct hits. Sergeant Henry Bedell's gunners on Peale island wasted just two rounds finding
their range, and then tore into the destroyer Hayate, which exploded, broke
in two and sank. Jubilant over their unexpected success, Bedell's crew stopped firing and broke
into celebration, until Bedell's outraged roar restored discipline.

Resuming fire, Bedell's battery, and other gunners on Peale, scored hits on the other three
destroyers, and set one of the transports on fire. With the invasion force in disarray, the
four Grumman fighters joined the fray: one of the fighters, strafing the destroyer
Kisaragi, detonated the depth charges on the destroyer's aft deck, mortally
wounding the ship.

Kajioka, his own flagship already retiring, called off the assault. The 450 Marines on
Wake thus earned the noble distinction of being the only force in the entire war to defeat
an amphibious assault.